Abstract: Devices and method for forming a switch including a heater layer including a first heater pad, a second heater pad, and a heater line connecting the first heater pad and the second heater pad, a phase change material (PCM) layer positioned in a same vertical plane as the heater line, and a floating spreader layer including a first portion positioned in the same vertical plane as the heater line and the PCM layer, in which the first portion has a first width that is less than or equal to a distance between proximate sidewalls of the first heater pad and the second heater pad.

Abstract: In an embodiment, a magnetic assembly includes: an inner permeance annulus; and an outer permeance annulus connected to the inner permeance annulus via magnets, wherein the outer permeance annulus comprises a peak region with a thickness greater than other regions of the outer permeance annulus.

Abstract: Devices and methods for providing a pilot structure for a virtual diversity receiver (VDR) scheme are disclosed. In order to improve the performance of a communication network, a VDR scheme is implemented to facilitate the exchange of information between user devices via an intermediary device, such as a base station. The pilot structure supports estimation of channel parameters at the receivers, including true channel taps, as well as estimations of the virtual channels created by the VDR scheme in order to enable the use of receive-diversity signal processing techniques.

Abstract: A base station is described herein that uses a root spreading code based code assignment to transmit signals to a mobile station. The mobile station can then suppress intra-block interference by effectively using a joint detection technique or a non-linear equalization technique to detect the transmitted symbols.

Abstract: A method of supplying channel information in a wireless communication system comprises a mobile terminal normally providing a basic channel report to the wireless communication system; the mobile terminal receiving at least one common feedback criterion broadcast to a plurality of mobile terminals; the mobile terminal determining if the mobile terminal satisfies a condition based on the at least one common feedback criterion; and the mobile terminal selectively providing an enhanced channel report to the wireless communication system based on the determining. The basic channel report may comprise information related to a first set of channel parameters, and the enhanced channel report may provide greater detail on the first set of channel parameters and/or relate to a second set of channel parameters. A method of a base station adaptively controlling channel information reporting by broadcast transmitting at least one common feedback criterion is also presented.

Abstract: A method and apparatus in a radio receiver for canceling interference from a high power, high data rate signal received in a combined signal that includes a contribution from the high power signal and a contribution from a lower power signal. It is first determined whether the high power signal was correctly received. A CRC checksum may be used to determine whether the high power signal was received with a good reliability. Thereafter, the contribution of the high power signal is removed from the received signal only if the high power signal was correctly received. The contribution of the high power signal may be removed by hard-subtracting the contribution of the high power signal from the received signal if all of the bits of the checksum are correct, and soft-subtracting the contribution of the high power signal from the received signal if most, but not all, of the bits in the checksum are correct.

Abstract: Error protection based on a nonlinear code set may be used in a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) radio communications system. A decoder decodes received MIMO data streams and generates an automatic repeat request (ARQ) message for data units received for the MIMO data streams for each transmission time interval. An encoder codes the ARQ message using a code word from a nonlinear code set. At the data transmitter, which transmits one or more data units in transmission time intervals from two or more MIMO data streams, the ARQ message associated with the transmitted data units is decoded using a code word from the nonlinear code set.

Abstract: A receiver includes a receiver circuit that decodes multiple signals of interest contained in a composite received signal. The receiver comprises a plurality of successive signal detection stages to detect respective signals contained in the composite received signal. Each detection circuit comprises at least one Generalized RAKE combining circuit and generates a detected signal at an output. Each but the last stage further comprises a signal regeneration circuit that cancels the signal of interest detected by that stage from a stage input signal provided to the next stage such that successive detection of the signals of interest benefits from cumulative cancellation of the previously detected signals.

Abstract: A method and corresponding circuit for determining a final result for a desired series of multiply-and-accumulate (MAC) operations are based on counting the occurrence of products in the desired series of MAC operations, multiplying the counts by their corresponding products to obtain partial sums, and adding the partial sums to obtain the final result. MAC processing as taught herein can be applied to a wide range of applications, such as received signal processing in wireless communication for computationally efficient (and high-rate) generation of interference correlation estimates and/or equalization filter values for a received communication signal.

Abstract: Methods for improving uplink communications in a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) communication system, wherein mobile terminals can transmit at various transmission power levels. In a mobile terminal, the method includes the steps of receiving a configuration message having at least one of a power offset parameter and a maximum number of retransmission attempts parameter; when the mobile terminal performs a non-scheduled transmission, it transmits according to the parameters contained in the configuration message. In a network node, the method includes the steps of transmitting to at least one mobile terminal the configuration message having at least one of a power offset parameter and a maximum number of retransmission attempts parameter; and, adjusting a power setting for the transmission of acknowledgement or negative-acknowledgement messages from the wireless network to one or more of mobile terminals.

Abstract: Signal impairment correlations for multiple signals in a received multipath signal are constructed by fitting parametric models associated with each high-data-rate signal in the multipath against measured impairment correlations. The estimated model fitting parameters are applied to form impairment correlation estimates for all signals. The models comprise a separate impairment covariance matrix scaled by a model fitting parameter for each high-data-rate signal and a noise covariance matrix scaled by a noise element model fitting parameter. The model fitting parameters may be estimated by a least-squares formulation and applied to form impairment correlation estimates for all signals of interest. The resulting impairment correlation estimates may be provided to G-RAKE receivers or joint scaling demodulators to demodulate the signals while suppressing interference from the high-data-rate signals.

Abstract: Multi-transmitter interference caused by one or more interfering own-cell and/or other-cell transmitters is reduced in a RAKE-based receiver. The RAKE-based receiver comprises a plurality of RAKE fingers, a processor and a combiner. The plurality of RAKE fingers are configured to despread received symbols, wherein a delay for a first one of the plurality of RAKE fingers corresponds to a symbol of interest transmitted by a first transmitter and a delay for a second one of the plurality of RAKE fingers corresponds to an interfering symbol transmitted by a second transmitter. The processor is configured to determine a cross-correlation between the symbol of interest and the interfering symbol. The combiner is configured to combine the symbol of interest with the interfering symbol using the cross-correlation to reduce interference attributable to the interfering symbol from the symbol of interest.

Abstract: Exemplary combining weight generation is based on estimating received signal impairment correlations using a weighted summation of interference impairment terms, such as an interference correlation matrix associated with a transmitting base station, and a noise impairment term, such as a noise correlation matrix, the impairment terms scaled by fitting parameters. The estimate is updated based on adapting the fitting parameters responsive to measured signal impairment correlations. The interference matrices are calculated from channel estimates and delay information, and knowledge of the receive filter pulse shape. Instantaneous values of the fitting parameters are determined by fitting the impairment correlation terms to impairment correlations measured at successive time instants and the fitting parameters are adapted at each time instant by updating the fitting parameters based on the instantaneous values.

Abstract: A wireless communication receiver receiving a multiplexed signal comprising two or more signal streams calculates a received signal quality for the multiplexed signal as a function of stream-specific received signal qualities, determines one or more loss parameters indicative of variations in the stream-specific received signal qualities, and generates quality feedback based on such information. In turn, a transmitter controls the selection of one or more transmission parameters of the multiplexed signal based on the quality feedback, such that its transmit link adaptations account for the losses in received signal quality at the receiver arising from the variations in the stream-specific received signal qualities. The quality feedback may include calculated loss values, or parameter/penalties that permit loss calculation, and the method applies to both code multiplexing and spatial multiplexing.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining operating modes in a receiver is described herein. A delay searcher in the receiver detects a signal image in the received signal. When the receiver is a RAKE receiver, a plurality of RAKE fingers coherently combine time-shifted versions of the received signal at different delays. Alternatively, when the receiver is a chip equalization receiver, an FIR filter coherently pre-combines the signal images in the received signal. A processor determines delays. In particular, the processor generates a first signal quality metric for a single-delay receiver mode, and generates a second signal quality metric for a multi-delay receiver mode. Based on a comparison of the first and second signal quality metrics, the processor selects the single-delay or the multi-delay receiver mode for processing the signal image.

Abstract: A wireless communication device or system generates transmit power control feedback for a received power control channel by determining a command error rate (CER), or by identifying a target signal quality for the power control channel according to a defined signal-quality-to-CER mapping function. Generally, the power control channel does not include error-coded data to use for CER estimation. However, in one embodiment, the channel does include known reference bits that are evaluated for CER estimation, with the estimated CER used to set the signal quality target for inner loop power control. In other embodiments, a computed reception error probability is used to identify a CER estimate according to a defined probability-to-CER mapping function. By way of non-limiting example, these embodiments may be used to provide power control feedback for power control commands transmitted on a Fractional Dedicated Physical Channel in WCDMA systems.

Abstract: According to method and apparatus embodiments taught herein, power control feedback is generated for a control channel signal that is received in conjunction with a reference channel signal based on the reference channel's signal strength or quality, and an estimate of a gain factor relating the control and reference channel signals. By way of non-limiting example set in a Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) context, the reference channel signal comprises a Common Pilot Channel (CPICH) signal and the control channel signal comprises a Fractional Dedicated Physical Channel (F-DPCH) signal that is transmitted at an (unknown) power gain relative to the CPICH signal.

Abstract: A receiver reduces interference in a received symbol of interest attributable to an interfering symbol using knowledge of the symbol spreading codes. The receiver comprises a plurality of correlators generating despread values for the received symbol of interest and the interfering symbol, and a combiner to combine the despread values using combining weights calculated based on spreading code correlations between spreading codes for the received symbol of interest and the interfering symbol.

Abstract: A wireless communication receiver improves signal impairment correlation estimation in MIMO/MISO systems by considering different transmit power allocations and different transmit antenna power distributions in its impairment correlation calculations. The receiver may be implemented in according to a variety of architectures, including, but not limited to, Successive Interference Cancellation (SIC) Generalized RAKE (G-RAKE), Joint Detection (JD) G-RAKE, and Minimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE) G-RAKE. Regardless of the particular receiver architecture adopted, the improved impairment correlations may be used to calculate improved (RAKE) signal combining weights and/or improve channel quality estimates for reporting by receivers operating in Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) systems transmitting HSDPA channels via MIMO or MISO transmitters.

Abstract: A joint detector that improves the performance of receiving a downlink control channel signal for a near-end mobile terminal in the presence of a stronger control channel signal addressed to a far-end mobile terminal sharing the same OVSF, or channelization, code through the use of orthogonal signature sequences. Depending on the specific embodiment, the joint detector may produce the desired bits for the control signal of interest, or may produce detected bits for all control signals sharing the same OVSF code. The joint detector despreads and combines the received code-multiplexed signal, utilizing knowledge of the cross correlations of the set of signature sequences and time-varying channel coefficients to alleviate performance degradation caused by interference from other signals.